[extropy-chat] Detectives and red herrings (was Survival tangent)

[Heartland]

Slawomir wrote:
>> > Things->Body->Brain
>> >
>> > But then, someone like Lee Corbin comes along and claims
>> this is not
>> > enough and extends the process:
>> >
>> > Things->Body->Brain->Pattern->VBMs
>> >
>> > But then, Jef Allbright comes along and says this is not
>> > enough/correct and decides to extend this process further
>> still until it looks like this:
>> >
>> > Things->Body->Brain->Pattern->VBMs->Agency

Jef:
> I feel silly even considering such a precarious ontology, let alone
> refuting it.
>
> Slawomir, it's the category error again.  I said nothing about
> *synchronic* personal identity, namely how we determine a unique person.
> I did propose a theory based on agency providing a more coherent and
> encompassing understanding of *diachronic* personal identity, namely how
> we determine that two separate observations are of the same person.

But Jef, I *know* that you are talking about diachronic personal identity, and I
*know* that your logic allows identity sharing among *many* agents. I also strongly
suspect your motivation for "agency" which is to save "patternism" from failing
when considering identity with respect to (changing) patterns over time. That's why
Things->Body->Brain->Pattern->VBMs->Agency is warranted. Your "agency" is just 
another
layer of abstraction or an "improvement" on top of the heap of "improvements"
constructed by patternists. Even though I applaud your motivation for "agency" I'm
afraid I have to file it under SBA (suicide by abstraction), sorry. I simply can't
accept survival as intangible and abstract as this.

Slawomir